This invention relates in general to vehicle park assist systems and in particular to an improved park assist system and method for parking of such a vehicle.
Vehicle park assist systems are used to identify a feasible parking space, e.g., usually a parallel space, a rear perpendicular space, or a garage parking space, and then take over the steering of the vehicle to maneuver the vehicle into the identified space hands free. During operation, the driver still shifts the transmission and operates the gas and brake pedals. Thus, while the steering is done automatically, the driver is still responsible for safe parking of the vehicle.
One known vehicle park assist system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,948,729 to Zalila et al. In U.S. Pat. No. 6,948,729, sensors 36 sense front obstacles 4, back obstacles 16 and an edge 5 of the possible parking space 2. Sensed data is processed and an output is provided which assists the driver in parking the vehicle.